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Japan has issued permits in the North Pacific for a total of 100 minkes, and for the first time, permits for 50 Bryde's and ten sperm whales. Earlier this year, in the Antarctic, as part of their scientific programme, the Japanese whalers took 439 minke whales.
Meanwhile, in the US, President Clinton announced yesterday that he will deny Japan future access to fishing rights in US waters.
Currently there is no foreign fishing in US waters, so this means nothing but maintaining the status quo.
Also yesterday, US Secretary of Commerce, Norman Mineta, advised President Bill Clinton to impose trade sanctions on Japanese products.
On a number of occasions the US has threatened to impose sanctions on countries such as Canada, Iceland, Japan, Norway and Russia because of their whaling activities. However, sanctions have never been implemented.
It's most likely that the sanctions will not be carried out this time either. There are several reasons to believe this:
Firstly, the Japanese catch is in full compliance with the UN Law of the Sea and the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
Secondly, US sanctions would be in violation of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Japan has indicated very clearly that if sanctions are imposed, it will make an official complaint to the WTO. A few years ago, Canada also informed the US that it would go to the WTO if sanctions were implemented. Needless to say, the US didn't impose sanctions then.
Thirdly, sanctions would most likely be counterproductive. US farm and agribusiness groups are worried that imposing sanctions could damage sales to their most important agricultural export market, Japan.
"The threat of trade sanctions is very, very worrisome to the wheat industry," said Barbara Spangler, head of the US wheat industry's trade education committee to Reuters on Wednesday (13 September).
Australia's Minister of Environment, Robert Hill, also thinks that sanctions can be counterproductive. "You introduce economic sanctions and they retaliate," he said, adding that, "all they (sanctions) tend to do is create a situation which ends up hurting your own producers." (AFP 31 August)
"But most important, these whale species are in good shape. There are no conservation reasons to stop the hunt," says Rune Frovik, secretary of the High North Alliance. For example, US authorities estimate that there are two million sperm whales worldwide. "How can a catch of ten animals out of a total population of 2 million threaten the species?" asks Frovik.
There are other questions begging to be answered. "The US says that Bryde's and sperm whales have not been hunted since 1987. But they know very well that the Philippines and Indonesia are catching these species. And that these two countries are neither members of the International Whaling Commission, nor do they work through an international organisation as required by the UN Law of the Sea. Why is the US pointing their fingers solely at Japan?"
It has been suggested that this is an attempt to bolster the Gore presidential election campaign. As things stand, President Clinton can wait until after the election to decide whether to impose sanctions or not, as he has 60 days to make a decision after getting advice from his cabinet yesterday.
"Consequently this can be exploited to a maximum in the campaign, but then as the whole row is a lame duck, Clinton will decide not to proceed with sanctions. Why didn't they start the process a few days earlier so that Clinton would have had to make a decision before the election? Is it because he would not have imposed sanctions anyway?" asks Frovik.
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